[Info-vax] Ask the Wizard archives?

[Kerry Main]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Info-vax <info-vax-bounces at rbnsn.com> On Behalf Of Arne Vajhøj
> via Info-vax
> Sent: May 23, 2019 10:37 PM
> To: info-vax at rbnsn.com
> Cc: Arne Vajhøj <arne at vajhoej.dk>
> Subject: Re: [Info-vax] Ask the Wizard archives?
> 
> On 5/23/2019 10:10 PM, Kerry Main wrote:
> >> -----Original Message-----
> >> From: Info-vax <info-vax-bounces at rbnsn.com> On Behalf Of Simon
> >> Clubley via Info-vax
> >> Sent: May 23, 2019 2:17 PM
> > Reason RHEL has eaten OpenVMS, Solaris, AIX, HP-UX lunch is because of
> > the RHEL business model.
> >
> > High up front licenses are considered CAPEX (capital expenses) in Cust
> > budgets which requires senior Cust exec signoff's and is very visible
> > and painful to get through.
> >
> > Support / subscription costs are considered OPEX (operations expense)
> > which no one sees or cares about except the Cust Operations Director.
> 
> Not true in well managed organizations.
> 
> Senior management want to know total cost = upfront cost + number of
> years * annual cost.
> 
> The reason RHEL has won is that:
> 
> CAPEX(competitor) > 0
> CAPEX(RHEL) = 0
> OPEX(RHEL) < OPEX(competitor)
> 
> Besides a large upfront license fee the competitors has asked for more
> money for support contract - usually way more than Redhat.
> 
> Arne

That’s what I stated - RH OPEX is not visible to anyone except the OPS
Director. 

The normal C level approvers for large CAPEX do not even see the costs of
the RH support costs since this is part of the OPS Director annual budget.
In many cases, the OPS Director might even choose a 3 year support
subscription agreement so it only appears as a line item on Y1, but nothing
on Y2 and Y3.

Imho, the VSI support subscription pricing model will need to be competitive
with RH support pricing - especially being the "new kid on the block" in
terms of the X86-64 platform.


Regards,

Kerry Main
Kerry dot main at starkgaming dot com